A bare-breasted statue (not pictured) is being called "lewd" by Utah parents who want their neighbor to remove the sculpture from his yard. CC BY: Gideon

April 18, 2011

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A feud is brewing in a Utah neighborhood, where angry parents are trying to get the city to force a neighbor to remove a statue of a bare-breasted woman from his yard. "It's lewd and there's so many little children under 8," one woman told a local newspaper. (See a photo of the statue here.) North Ogden City Manager Ed Dickie says that the local government's hands are tied, and that the statue's owner has the right to keep his art where it is. Is a little artistic nudity harmless, even in a neighborhood packed with kids?

The town is wise to butt out: The government can't regulate art, or taste, says the Standard-Examiner in an editorial. So the city manager did exactly the right thing by telling the folks in the neighborhood to work this out among themselves. "These types of disagreements are usually cooled once opposing sides sit down, talk things out, and discover they're not as different as they think.""Stone nude in North Ogden"

Tacky or not, the man has a right to his statue: This semi-nude goddess is "not my taste in garden decor," says Jessica Oberay, a neighbor of the statue owner, as quoted by ABC 4. But even if this statue leaves parents blushing and kids giggling, it's art. And art is about freedom of expression. That trumps angry parents every time."Nude statue upsets residents"